Tax year 2022 has been a challenging year for IRS communication as the agency struggles to recover their pre-pandemic pace.
Slow in the best of times, the IRS response times have reached an all-time low in some departments during 2022. Whilst they claim to be catching up on their delays, the current processing time for paper filed returns can be a year or longer. Whilst extremely frustrating for taxpayers, there is not much that can be done to expedite the process. This highlights the importance of filing tax returns electronically whenever possible to ensure faster processing.
Us citizens are urged by the IRS to gather their tax information for 2022 early during 2023. This ensures their return will be ready for filing before e-filing is no longer possible at the end of 2023.
IRS departments dealing with incoming correspondence regarding various processing issues, are sending generic letters asking for more time to complete working on individual cases. Whilst this does not provide concrete results, it does reassure the sender that the correspondence was received and is being processed.
Audit, tax court and appeals department have not seen any significant change of pace compared to last year. However, tax court cases are being settled much closer to the trial dates than previously done. Various IRS attorneys have explained that this is due to their heavy workload and old cases piling up. This can be pressurizing and it is important, if going through a tax court case, to be aware of the trial date and ensure the case is settled a few weeks before.
Despite their current backlog, appeals officers are not being more lenient, and the opposite is true in some cases. They continue to ask for additional documents to prove income or dependency status, ignoring looming court dates or lengthy resolution time. One step that is being bypassed seems to be the conference call to discuss the case and determination with the taxpayer or their power of attorney.
If your child was born and received a Social Security number before the filing deadline for the 2021 return, you are eligible to receive the recovery rebate credit and child tax credit for that child. Nevertheless, in numerous cases, the IRS have disallowed it. If the IRS have reduced your refund based on such a scenario, the missing credits can be claimed by mailing the IRS a letter with proof of your eligibility such as a copy of the relevant Social Security card and your filing extension if relevant.
Are you missing your 2021 refund? If yes, the first step is to check its status on www.irs.gov
The IRS refund status tool has been updated to provide the option for an online request for a check trace. This tool is available just for one prior tax year, currently 2021. Not all taxpayers are provided with this online option, and in many cases do need to file the paper form 3911 instead. However, for the taxpayers who have been able to send the online form, the processing has proven to be a lot faster than the paper option, and refunds have been received in record time.
With the IRS currently hiring new employees, we continue to hope for better communication and response times in 2023, and speedy processing for all returns!
